A tie-down is a type of item that is used for attaching sheet material to an article, such as for attaching a seat cover to an automobile seat frame. Conventional tie-downs are made of a strip of fabric connected to a rigid plastic bead. The rigid bead attaches the fabric strip to the article, such as a seat frame, that is designed to accept it by permitting the bead to slide into a channel of the article. The fabric portion of the tie-down is sewn to material that is to be secured to the article. In a car seat example, the fabric portion of the tie-down is sewn to an edge of the seat cover. Retention of the bead in the seat frame channel secures the seat cover to the seat frame.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional tie-down manufacturing process 310. As shown, fabric from a roll 312 proceeds through an extruder 314 wherein a polymer bead is extruded onto the fabric to form a continuous length of beaded fabric 316. The polymer bead is cooled as it passes through a cooling unit 318, after which beaded fabric 316 passes through a male/female die-cut press 320. Male/female die-cut press 320 cuts tie-downs of a determined length and shape 322 out of the continuous length of beaded fabric 316. The tie-downs exit male/female die cut press 320 as individual units that are handled for storage or further processing. Tie-downs with a number of imperfect cuts, such as those having frayed edges or incomplete cuts, proceed through a rework station 324 where the cuts are manually improved using scissors.
Conventional manufacturing process 310 suffers various drawbacks. For instance, male/female die-cut operation 318 may create a large number of unacceptable products by incompletely cutting through the fabric strips and/or the beads, or by fraying the edges of the fabric at the cut lines. Manual reworking process 322 may improve such unacceptable products, but reworked products typically have only marginal quality and are expensive to produce compared with non-reworked products. Further, such reworking requires manual inspection for unacceptable products, which may not catch all of the unacceptable products. In addition, immediate handling of individual tie-downs as they exit male/female die cut press 320 disrupts the flow of continuous processing.
An alternative conventional tie-down manufacturing process includes laser-cutting the tie-downs instead of using die-cut press 320. However, laser-cutting may be slower than die-cutting, often requires expensive equipment, and may require further processing to cut the polymer bead.
Accordingly, a need exists for an improved manufacturing process for tie-downs. Further, a need exists for an improved die for cutting the same.